My name is Alex McGrath, and I'm your 1st Vice President! What that means is that I represent you and your over 80,000 fellow students to the County Council and the Maryland General Assembly. That also means that I'm responsible for Lobbying Day, which is our annual day for students throughout AACPS to go to the Maryland General Assembly and tell them how we feel about bills before them. Lobbying Day will be on February, 25th this year, and I can't wait to see you there!
This year, our executive staff and I decided that we are lobbying in support of HB 226, HB 87, HB 617, and HB 31.
HB 226 would increase student representation in Talbot County for their SMOB. Currently, the SMOB position alternates between a representative from a representative from one of the two schools in the county each year. If this bill passes, it would allow for Talbot County to have two SMOBs, and would increase their representation!
HB 87 is also a SMOB bill. This bill is to increase the voting rights of the Montgomery County SMOB. With this bill, we get closer to giving the MoCo SMOB a full vote, and we would help make history!
HB 617 deals with adjunct instructors at AACPS. What that means is that experts in their fields could come in and teach a class that they have specialty knowledge in without receiving a teaching certification. This bill would be great because it would let for people with specialized knowledge come in and teach us specialized skills, while also reducing the amount of work our teachers have, so they could dedicate their teaching time to subjects they are comfortable with.
HB 31 is an environmental bill, which aims to ban plastic bags, and charge everyone a 10 cent tax for every paper bag they use. This bill could help save the Chesapeake Bay! Plastic bags are bad for the environment, and this would let us help get rid of them.
We will end the day with a question and answer period with County Executive Steve Schuh, and will also hear from Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards who represents Maryland's 4th district!
I hope you are as excited as I am about lobbying day, and please tell your friends to come! If you have any question at all please don't hesitate to reach out to me, or to ask any of our amazing executive staff members, and we will do our best to answer it!
I look forward to seeing you,
Alex McGrath
